Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents
Say, let's talk about purgatory, shall we?
People think that there's this big massive doctrine in the Catholic Church about purgatory
and they also think that it's nowhere biblical and both of those ideas are actually incorrect.
First, it's not a massive doctrine and secondly, it's very biblical.
There's three things that Catholics believe about purgatory:
A. That there exists some place of final purification.
B (or 2).
We believe that purification, that process, is painful or involves some discomfort.
3.
We believe that the prayers of those on earth can assist those going through this final
purification or process.
That's it - Wait a second, didn't Jesus pay the final price for our sins?
Absolutely, he did!
Jesus, by his life, death, and resurrection on the Cross, he took away the eternal consequence
for our sin, right?
The eternal consequence for our sin is eternal separation from God - hell
Jesus paid that price, he made it possible for us to have access to the Father.
He made it possible for us to be rescued from damnation and have salvation.
But we also know that all of our sins don't only have an eternal consequence, they also
have a temporal consequence.
Even if I am forgiven, because of God's grace, there is now some temporal, or consequences
in time, in myself, because of that. Even though I'm forgiven, I'm now attached
to sin.
Even though I'm forgiven, I now have a proclivity towards that same sin.
Even though I'm forgiven, there are some consequences in time, temporal, that I have to deal with.
What purgatory is all about is, because of God's grace, because of his mercy, because
of his love, he has released us from those eternal consequences of sin, aka hell
but he also desires to free us from the temporal consequences of sin.
This is biblical because in First Corinthians Chapter 3, St. Paul even says, Those of you
who are Christians, you build with various materials,
but the day of the Lord is coming and it will burn like a fire and if you have built on
the foundation of Christ, because you are a Christian, right,
built on the foundation of Christ, with anything other than precious materials, those things
that are straw, and those things that are wood, those things that are not precious,
those things that can't endure, they'll be burned up as through fire.
This process, purification, involves some kind of discomfort as Scripture attests to.
Now, that's not those who are not Christians, that's those who are Christians, those who
are in Christ and the eternal punishment, the eternal consequence of their sin has been
paid, by Jesus.
But they have been building, they have been crafting a life that some is great and virtuous,
doesn't have to be purified.
But other things in my life do have to be purified and that will be uncomfortable aka
as Scripture says in First Corinthians 3 "As through fire."
We believe that's purgatory.
That it is simply a process that which God extends his grace, not a process of God withholding
his grace, but a process of God extending His grace to
all those who died in a state of grace in friendship with Jesus, but still have certain
attachments.
It's this purification, not only that I can love God as he deserves, but also I don't
have attachments to things that I shouldn't have attachments to
so that he can love me, so he can love you as he desires to love you.
Now, our prayers on this earth help those in purgatory.
This is Second Maccabees Chapter 12.
There's this great battle and there are a great number of Jews who die in the battle.
Now as they are going around, collecting the bodies, they find that some of these people,
even though they were in covenant with the Lord God,
they have amulets that are basically like good luck charms.
So essentially died in friendship with God, right, in the covenant with God
but they have some lack of trust of the Lord God.
And these amulets, or these good luck charms indicate that they didn't fully trust in the
Lord God.
Because of that, Judas Maccabeus takes up a collection to offer a sacrifices and prayers
for them.
And Scripture says, in doing this, he did a noble thing.
Because in praying for the dead, now it assumes that praying for the dead is a thing that
actually we do and it is assumes that praying for the dead
is a thing that actually helps those not because we're the one mediator.
No, Jesus is the one mediator and he takes away the eternal consequence for sin.
But because of being part of the Body of Christ, our prayers not only help each other in this
world, they also help each other when we are in the next world,
that purification entry into heaven.
This is not unusual.
In fact, this is not anti-Biblical and it's not anti-Christian.
And even great Christians like C.S. Lewis, believed in purgatory.
C.S. Lewis even said, Our souls demand purgatory, don't they?
C.S. Lewis gives us this example, he says: Imagine showing up to the gates of heaven
and yes, because God, Jesus Christ, has paid the eternal price for my sin, I can
go to heaven.
Imagine, he says, showing up to the door of heaven, and they say, "Come on in," and you're
like, "Ugh, I feel uncomfortable because I have kind of these filthy rags on, I feel
like I need to get cleaned up some more."
They say, "No, no no.
Come in.
Just share in the joy."
Lewis says, we would say, "I know you'd love me if I walked in there.
All the same, I would prefer to be cleaned up first."
"I know that you'd accept me, but all the same, I would prefer to have all those attachments
in my heart detached so that I can completely be free to give it to the Lord."
This ultimately all comes down to how we see salvation.
We believe in this thing intrinsic justification, which on a moment to moment basis we get to cooperate
with God's grace.
Because we believe God is present at all moments and he is inviting us to cooperate with him
at all moments.
The consequence is I may die in friendship with God, in his Grace, but I haven't fully
given my heart to him.
Purgatory is God's gift, that final purification, for whatever is in my heart that shouldn't
be, it gets purified.
By whose grace?
By his grace.
By my works?
No, simply by my cooperation with his works but my cooperation with His love by your and
my cooperation with his grace.
Purgatory is a gift of God's mercy and for one, I am just so grateful to our God, who
is so good, that he gives us this great gift.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless.
If you want more information on purgatory—this is a really important thing—
there are a ton
—a ton—of articles out there
that explain purgatory way better than I just did
in this video. There's things at
Catholic.com, which is Catholic Answers,
there's things at Catholic Educators Resource,
I think it's CatholicEducation.com.
Great articles there explaining
what we believe as Catholics about purgatory
far far better, and much more in-depth
than I just did right now.
There are even some articles and resources
through Ascension Press
helping us explain what we truly
believe about purgatory.
You'll find those in the notes below.